Embers of the Lost

It turned out that being a maid for this family was so much worse that Lily had imagined. She had been introduced to them as Emira Hawkes, but she had yet to be called by either the first or surname. Instead she was referred to as ‘maid’ or ‘you’.

Not only were the family rude, the rules they set in place were borderline ridiculous at times.

Companion animals were to stay in the maid’s quarters at all times. Lily was not allowed to have her wand on her outside of her room. She had to complete all tasks manually. She couldn’t look any family member in the eye without receiving a stern swat from the grandmother’s cane. She had to eat in her quarters and only once her duties were done for the period of the day. The same applied to drinks and bathroom needs.

Despite the fact the house had three floors and too many rooms to be necessary, Lily realised quickly that she was the only maid and so the workload was extortionate.

No wonder everyone left.

But there were so many travellers who passed through town that the family could always find someone desperate enough for money to last between one and three months. Perhaps if there weren’t so many passers-by to use, the family would have to rethink their management style. Of course, if that was the case, Lily wouldn’t be able to have a pretty valid excuse to leave from day one if she found the information out quickly.

Nothing happened that quickly. That would make Lily far luckier than she was.

“Still nothing?” Axel asked on one of the rare visits Lily was allowed. Lily couldn’t leave the estate, but her family was permitted to visit for an hour every other day so long as it didn’t interfere with how much work she got done.

“No. I’ve cleaned this place top to bottom and I’ve found nothing to say they might be Byrne’s… other than their attitudes.” Lily added bitterly as she poured tea into a cup for herself and settled into the uncomfortable chair given to her quarters.

“Maybe they’ve got a hidden room.” Axel supplied.

“I’ve kept an eye out while cleaning and Kiki has been browsing at night when she can be changed back to a cat.” Lily sighed. “I’ve found some… enlightening stuff… but nothing that actually helps me.” Axel laughed at the shudder that ran through her at the memory of some of the objects and attire she had found while cleaning and washing. The whole family, frankly, had no shame even around a stranger like her. If she commented, she faced consequences.

“‘Enlightening’ sounds fun.” Axel chortled.

“Maybe for some people; doesn’t appeal to me.” Lily stuck her tongue out a little in disgust at the ideas of some things she’d seen.

“You’re so dull.”

“Whatever.”

Axel shook his head and took a sip of the tea he had been given. It was obvious that he would prefer something with a stronger taste. “What about a basement or attic?”

“Can’t find an entrance to either; which makes me think that’s exactly what I should be looking for.” Lily admitted.

“You’ll have to start following the family and see if they lead you somewhere new.”

That seemed like a good, logical suggestion. But a couple of weeks later when Lily found herself pinned to the wall of a basement stairway, she regretted ever listening to the tiger.

She had changed up her routines to make the chores follow the members of the family around the house. Never so she was in the way, but so she could hear if they ventured into a room she wasn’t aware of yet. Lily messed up though.

She messed up badly.

The smirk on Lexi’s face told her just how badly.

“You know, there’s easier ways to get my attention than stalking me.” He purred with eyes the same green as the ones that haunted her memory.

“I wasn’t…” she squirmed, pushing herself further against the wall in an attempt to put space between them.

“You don’t have to lie.” He raised his hand and brushed his fingers over her cheek, stepping forward to trap her body with his own. “You’re one of the prettier maids we’ve had, so I don’t mind.”

“No.” Lily pulled his hand away from her face with her eyes turning to a light glare. The trapped feeling was turning her stomach and the glint in his eyes was ominous at best. She had to get out of here.

Lexi laughed darkly. “You want to still deny it? Are we playing that kind of game?”

Game? What game?! How in any sense was this a game?! As he leant down to catch her lips with his, Lily shoved his chest, the spell to reject/eject a target screaming in her mind and sending Lexi crashing into the wall behind him.

“Don’t touch me!” Lily snarled. Though instantly her throat was closed by long fingers wrapping around them as Lexi launched himself back towards her, his strength lifting her a little from the ground.

“You liche! How dare you?” Lexi snarled at her. But it was no longer Lexi who Lily saw. Despite his blond hair that fell in his face and the stubble that framed his face, she saw brown hair and soft skin. She saw Finnigan. Those green hues full of hate, and the pressure around her neck that merged memory with reality.

He was going to kill her this time.

Her hands flew up to claw at the hold around her throat. His lips were moving but the sound was drowned by the ringing in her ears.

Finnigan had already killed part of her. He was going to finish the job.

The feeling of a hand on her thigh was enough to trigger the transition from being stuck in her mind to reacting. She had to escape. He couldn’t bind her again. He couldn’t take anything else from her. Pulling against the one finger pressing most onto her voice box, she managed to utter the Agora spell. A yell of pain echoed in the stairwell followed by the sudden release of her neck. Her legs didn’t catch her. With thuds of bone against wood, Lily clattered down the stairs to the basement as the scent of burning buried her.

She had to keep him away.

He couldn’t take more from her.

Her hands dug into her hair as she curled up into a ball on the cold floor. She could hear the crackling of fire above her, she could tell it was spreading through the house, but she couldn’t stop.

Finnigan couldn’t be allowed to touch her again.

The fire sprung forth and devoured anything in its wake. It was something that could keep the threat far away from her, even if the roof above began to crumble. The idea of being buried alive didn’t scare Lily as much as those green eyes did.

Besides, maybe it would be best to die now. She couldn’t lose anything else that way.

“Em!”

“Emira!”

Why was someone calling that name?

Why would someone even bother coming for her?

She’d walked away from anyone who had ever cared about her or she had cared for. With smoke-filled lungs, she couldn’t call back, she could only allow sleep to take her.

“Lily!”

~

Axel had actually been enjoying Kita-Utara. He worked in the bar and got on well with Liserli despite the threats he had made towards her. For the most part, the locals were pleasant and he discovered that there really were more races of people hidden in plain sight. He had played cards with a draconian and a married couple from the mainland, though they wouldn’t tell him what they were. He had spotted a couple of fairies and even another of his own kind. A snow leopard with a playful attitude.

“You going to leave when you’ve saved up enough?” The snow leopard, known as Quinn, asked one night over a drink. The story Axel told everyone was that he and his sister had only stopped travelling because they needed funds but they were still intending on continuing to Mythanissiam to find relatives. Of course, any non-witch knew that wasn’t the full truth, but they all believed they were just here for funds. Liserli hadn’t sold out who Lily was.

“This place is pretty cool.” Axel admitted. “I don’t think Emira feels particularly safe in one place for too long though.”

Thinking of the little he knew of her, Lily didn’t seem like she really knew what it was like to be safe and accepted no matter where she had been. She was hurt deeply, Axel could smell it on her even as she walked ahead of him as though confident in her direction. He heard her whimpers at night when she spoke the same name over again, a name she never once uttered when she was awake.

‘Finn’.

Whomever ‘Finn’ was, he had done a lot of damage to the teen. On top of that she’d been banished from her home, lost friends and even lost part of her soul.

“I wouldn’t be able to sit still after that.” Axel mumbled, receiving a confused look from the white-haired man.

“Is that why you are sticking with her?” Quinn asked. Most felines like themselves didn’t attach to others. Feline Vilankuri were often solitary creatures who came together for mating only. Quinn, himself, lived on the outskirts of the town and was often seen enjoying his alone time.

“Nah.” Axel chuckled. “She’s fun to wind up and she sees lots of places.”

Quinn raised an eyebrow in disbelief.

“Tch. Ok, so I also think she could use having someone at her back. We aren’t close enough that she’s scared of the effects on me.” Axel admitted with a roll of his eyes. “Oh, you could come with?”

“Huh? Why?”

Axel shrugged.

“Maybe if you told me what you were really doing, I might. But you...” Before he could finish, the sound of yelling rushed in from outside. It sounded panicked and, when they looked outside, they could see people running in the same direction.

“What the…?” Both men were on their feet and in the tavern doorway in an instant. Both could smell the problem as soon as the door opened.

Smoke filled the air.

The smell of burning made Axel choke the moment it hit the back of his throat.

“It’s coming from the mansion!”

“Water magic isn’t working!”

The mansion…

“Damn!” Axel jumped out of the doorway and began to sprint towards the place he had visited Lily many times already. He could feel his blood pounding through his veins as he got a horrible sinking feeling. Lily had to be alright… right?

“You go cover downstairs, I’ll go up!” Quinn yelled over the crackling as he caught up to Axel who had slowed with his eyes wide and reflecting the flames that licked the air and drowned out the sounds of anyone inside.

“Right!” Axel agreed, pushing his legs into motion.

She’d be fine. They would find her before it was too late.

Why was the idea of losing her scary? He hadn’t even cared about whether someone stuck around. But the idea of her losing her life in the fire filled him with sickening dread.

She was so young. Naive? Yes. Idealistic? Completely. But she was also so incredibly brave. Facing tough decisions even though they killed her and still having the strength to take another step for the good of others… From Axel’s experience, that didn’t exist in many people.

“Emira!” He called through downstairs, manipulating the air around him to keep the smoke away from his lungs and the fire away from his skin.

The whole place reeked of smoke and barbeque. The fact that the main family hadn’t made it out said to Axel that there was no way Lily had.

Blasting air through doorways to rip burning wood from its joints, he searched the living quarters, the kitchen, the laundrette, the dining rooms, the reading rooms…

“There’s too many rooms!” He cursed, turning on his heels as he reached a side door to the gardens. Should he check the gardens? Hopping to the side as the floor crumbled under his foot. Nope. This building wasn’t going to last. He had to find her.

“Axel!” The shout from Quinn was muffled in the crackling of the fire, but it was enough for the tiger to run through the house and up to the next floor.

“Which way?!” He called back, unable to smell anything other than smoke, burning material and meat.

“Down here!”

The voice came from the left. It didn’t take long before Axel skidded to a halt beside Quinn who was pointing at a burning tapestry where a blonde man lay motionless beneath.

“I’ll get you through.” Quinn called over the noise, holding out his hand and creating a gust of ice wind to smother and freeze the tapestry. “My ice magic won’t last long in this heat though.”

“Got it. Thanks.” Axel nodded before pushing through the tapestry, feeling the burn of both ice and fire as he shifted from one to the other. The stairs behind had been eaten away by fire. Great. Jumping with a leap of faith into the darkness, Axel was glad to discover that it wasn’t that deep.

“Lily!” He called instinctively as he spotted the outline of her body on the hot stone.

Her body was still, her breath shallow.

“Lily!”

He cursed, hoisting her up over his shoulder before heading back to the entrance.

“Quinn! Grab her!” He called up, waiting for the lithe, tall body of his friend to appear. Quinn laid himself down on the ground and froze his legs to the ground so he could lean his entire top half of his body over the edge and reach down. Between two men over six feet, Axel was able to pass Lily up. “Get her out!”

With a nod, Quinn pulled Lily up out of the strange room filled with smoke. No fire though. Stamping his foot on the ground, Axel sent a blast of air through the room, pushing the smoke out of the entrance and leaving him in a surprisingly intact room.

“Lily must have set the fire and directed it away from her.” Which meant she couldn’t have been unconscious for long.

“She did.”

Axel jumped at the voice and spun around to squint into the darkness of the room. His eyes weren’t human so it became clearer with each passing second. He found himself looking upon a cage with a female witch inside, sitting on the ground as though bored and accepting of her fate.

“What the…?” Axel started, though he couldn’t quite process this information. “Hang on!” He yelped as he ran over to test the door and see if he could open it.

“I wouldn’t bother trying. Byrne’s don’t easily let their ‘traitor’ family members free.” The female spat bitterly.

“You’re a Byrne?”

The female tilted her head and looked at him with a curious expression. “You know the weight of that?”

“My friend is trying to stop you all.”

“Are they?” She chortled a little and rested back against the warm wall. “Well, good luck to them. I’m here waiting for my execution once the war starts.”

“Lily’s trying to stop the war.” Axel commented, making a potentially rash decision. “Right! You’re coming with us. You can answer the questions she can’t get out of the military liche.”

“You’ve got Luce?!” She roared with laughter for a moment before pushing herself to her feet. “Well, at the very least, I’ll come along just to give Luce a good punch in the face.”

Axel smirked a little at the idea. For all the times he had seen Lucretia spit at Lily, he would probably enjoy seeing her get punched in the face as well. Reaching out to the hinges of the doors, Axel condensed and focused the air to create pressure inside, building it higher until the bolts couldn’t hold anymore and shot across the room.

“I wish they’d have given me such an easy prison to get out of.” Axel laughed. Before the woman could say anything more, he pulled the door aside and reached in to grab her frame and throw her over his shoulder.

It didn’t take him long to get outside, setting the woman down and running over to where Quinn knelt next to Lily trying to wake her up as Kiki flapped in panicked fear.

~

Hands.

Hands held her. No. Hold wasn’t right. They claimed her. They constricted her throat until her mind screamed for oxygen. They pressured her shoulders down and pinned them to solid ground beneath. They caught and restrained her legs when she kicked them out to fight off the hands.

There were so many hands.

“Lily!”

“Lily, come on!”

Blue eyes came into view as she blinked rapidly. Not green eyes, blue. Along with black hair and beard.

“Axel…” Lily rolled over as her body convulsed into a coughing fit, the reality becoming a little clearer. It hadn’t been hands on her throat, it was smoke in her lungs making her choke.

“Easy.” Axel commented, though the hand rubbing her back was not his. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw a white-haired stranger with blue eyes just as bright as Axel’s. His smile was softer though, reassuring, though he held a much more intimidating aura than Axel did.

“Is that… the fairy Lily?”

“Did she kill the family?”

“Is she here to kill us all?”

The whispers grew in the crowd around them, and Lily could see wands being drawn by those who didn’t realise that the different lived among them.

“I… killed…?” She stammered, trying to push herself up without the strength to do so. She wouldn’t kill. She didn’t want to hurt anyone. She couldn’t… could she? She could remember terror but nothing in the reality past that moment Lexi had reached for her throat. Had she killed him? How could she do that? Her breathing quickened as the anxiety and panic spread through her.

“Lily, calm down.” The white haired stranger soothed, his hand running over her hair in a manner used to calm children. The heat of the fire had burned away from effects of her water spells which kept her disguise up. Her hair was obviously white, with her skin shimmering beneath the soot and debris.

She heard Axel snap at people to back away. Though the chattering was becoming angrier.

“We should leave.” A female voice she didn’t recognise spoke.

Who were these people?! How much time had she lost to the hallucinations and memories of things she didn’t want to experience?

Spells were sent their way and blocked by the female. Lily’s focus blurred as her chest convulsed again. She couldn’t fight. She wanted to be at home with her parents. She wished she’d never left. She could be in her warm room with Oscar curled by her belly while Kiki slept by her head. She could wake up and eat fresh fruit and watch her mother do her hair up in fancy braids.

Instead, she hadn’t slept in comfort for almost a year now. The voices in her head would not stop. Oscar was no longer there. Her parents may as well be in another world entirely.

Laughter wasn’t pure anymore, it was sarcastic or bitter as it followed gallows humour so closely in her life now.

The feel of arms under her and the rhythm of the jog that her holder took rocked her in and out of consciousness.

She just wanted everything to stop.

She didn’t want to do this anymore.

Life was not worth the torment. Life was not worth the pain.